Hello! First off I want to say that the decision to pay 100.00 to stick with Flower Chat was the biggest no brainer of my life. This year I sold 3 composite bridal bouquets at 140.00 each. They took 1 hour to make and about 7.00 cost of goods each. I had been afraid to ever sell this item because I just didn’t know how to make it. I read a thread here about a year ago on just how to go about it and the next time someone ask I gave it a try. This alone should pay for a couple of years on Flower Chat.
The 2000.00 I saved in labor in December should buy me another 10 years or so I see the rate the rate is going to go up over the years). I am going to admit I was really freaked out when I had to cut employee hours for the first time ever last month. I was also to scared to look at the numbers on my POS until a few days ago. It was weird because while I didn’t feel busy I also didn’t feel totally broke. I worked 20 hours a week at most the whole month of December instead of the 50 to 60 I usually work. We were down only 5% in overall non wire sales. And down about 70% in wire ins. There is no way that those wire ins could have possibly paid for 2000.00 in payroll and 100 more hours of my time to manage the extra business.
I credit Flower Chat 100% percent for my decision to cancel 1800 and TF this year!!!! I am still FTD and pretty much choose them because I happen to have their POS and also we still send out 30 to 40 wireouts a month so at this point I can still justify it.
Now a little about myself. I have owned my shop for14 years(WOW) . We are in Orange County Ca. I am in Fullerton. 3 miles from CHR, 5 miles from Big Ted, 10 miles from Eric at Everyday Flowers. This is why I lurk. When I first came here they were all so involved and you have to admit they are some of the most knowledgeable and forward thinking florists in the business. Pretty mighty competition if I do say so myself and I think I was just a little intimidated. So I lurked. I have come on every single night for over 2 years and I think read at least 90% of all posts. I would be at work the next day telling my designers “well Shannon loves flowers says to do it this way….”.
Last year my shop did about 180 weddings. I am VERY lucky to be in Orange County. Our average wedding was around 3000.00. This is our niche. Hi end looking weddings for 3 grand and it is a great place to be in this economy. Check out our website flowerallieweddings.com. At this point the only thing I have to offer to this board is that I have figured out how to do a platinum looking wedding for 3000.00 and still make a profit.
One more thing for now and the reason I will post this tonight instead of in the morning as I had originally planned on is I wanted to say a few things about Flower Chat and Ryan.
I have spoken to Ryan only once in my life and was lucky enough to get to talk to him at length about the industry and SEO. I was probably one of the first people interested in buying a Strider site. I spoke to him at length about this and even gave him a deposit. The resulting site was not good. It was bad, unatractive and the misspellings were so bad that even I the biggest misspeller of all time could point them out. Ryan is a busy guy and turned me over to Jim and in the end they just couldn’t design a site that was pretty enough for me. I have now hired Media 99 and at this point am still using my FTD site…..
I mention this only so you know that I have no bias for or against Ryan or Strider but do want to say give the guy a break.
This is a guy who has WORKED FOR FREE FOR 7 YEARS! EVEN IF HE MAKES 200,000 NEXT YEAR THAT MEANS HE WILL MAKE 25,000 A YEAR ON AVERAGE OVER AN 8 YEAR PERIOD.
I have a whole bunch more to say. I will be here tomorrow and I will contribute from now on and I look so forward to getting to know you all.
Allison
The 2000.00 I saved in labor in December should buy me another 10 years or so I see the rate the rate is going to go up over the years). I am going to admit I was really freaked out when I had to cut employee hours for the first time ever last month. I was also to scared to look at the numbers on my POS until a few days ago. It was weird because while I didn’t feel busy I also didn’t feel totally broke. I worked 20 hours a week at most the whole month of December instead of the 50 to 60 I usually work. We were down only 5% in overall non wire sales. And down about 70% in wire ins. There is no way that those wire ins could have possibly paid for 2000.00 in payroll and 100 more hours of my time to manage the extra business.
I credit Flower Chat 100% percent for my decision to cancel 1800 and TF this year!!!! I am still FTD and pretty much choose them because I happen to have their POS and also we still send out 30 to 40 wireouts a month so at this point I can still justify it.
Now a little about myself. I have owned my shop for14 years(WOW) . We are in Orange County Ca. I am in Fullerton. 3 miles from CHR, 5 miles from Big Ted, 10 miles from Eric at Everyday Flowers. This is why I lurk. When I first came here they were all so involved and you have to admit they are some of the most knowledgeable and forward thinking florists in the business. Pretty mighty competition if I do say so myself and I think I was just a little intimidated. So I lurked. I have come on every single night for over 2 years and I think read at least 90% of all posts. I would be at work the next day telling my designers “well Shannon loves flowers says to do it this way….”.
Last year my shop did about 180 weddings. I am VERY lucky to be in Orange County. Our average wedding was around 3000.00. This is our niche. Hi end looking weddings for 3 grand and it is a great place to be in this economy. Check out our website flowerallieweddings.com. At this point the only thing I have to offer to this board is that I have figured out how to do a platinum looking wedding for 3000.00 and still make a profit.
One more thing for now and the reason I will post this tonight instead of in the morning as I had originally planned on is I wanted to say a few things about Flower Chat and Ryan.
I have spoken to Ryan only once in my life and was lucky enough to get to talk to him at length about the industry and SEO. I was probably one of the first people interested in buying a Strider site. I spoke to him at length about this and even gave him a deposit. The resulting site was not good. It was bad, unatractive and the misspellings were so bad that even I the biggest misspeller of all time could point them out. Ryan is a busy guy and turned me over to Jim and in the end they just couldn’t design a site that was pretty enough for me. I have now hired Media 99 and at this point am still using my FTD site…..
I mention this only so you know that I have no bias for or against Ryan or Strider but do want to say give the guy a break.
This is a guy who has WORKED FOR FREE FOR 7 YEARS! EVEN IF HE MAKES 200,000 NEXT YEAR THAT MEANS HE WILL MAKE 25,000 A YEAR ON AVERAGE OVER AN 8 YEAR PERIOD.
I have a whole bunch more to say. I will be here tomorrow and I will contribute from now on and I look so forward to getting to know you all.
Allison
